The Croatian government on Thursday decided to initiate amendments to the Constitution in order to regulate the protection and entitlements of Homeland Defence War veterans by constitutional laws whose adoption and modification require a two-third majority in the parliament.
The government's decision came after war veterans recently requested the cabinet of the Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to see to it that the laws regulating their status be upgraded to become constitutional.
Prime Minister Kosor said today this was necessary in order to protect war veterans whom she described as "one of the most vulnerable groups of the society".
Expressing hope the parliament would endorse the government's motion, Kosor said Croatia was marking the 20th anniversary of its independence this year and that it was war veterans who deserved the greatest credit for that.
She also warned that some of provisions of the legislation on veterans' entitlements and rights had not been respected so far, such as those regulating the employment of children of war veterans.
The president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zoran Milanovic, said a proposal to amend the law on the entitlements of war veterans and make it a constitutional law was light-minded.
"We guarantee to all veterans a fair and affirmative relationship. The constitution is not the price of gas and you cannot change it every Monday. What are we going to do with the unemployed, the fishermen, the farmers and those who are working without getting paid? Is all of that gonna be a constitutional law? This proposal is light-minded," said Milanovic commenting on the government's decision to propose amending the constitution in order to upgrade the law on war veterans to become a constitutional law.
